GILGIT: Bodies of two missing Canadian and Australian mountaineers were found at a location between Camp 1 and Camp 2 of K2 on Tuesday.

According to sources at Base Camp, Australian climber Matthew Eakin and Canadian climber Richard Cartier went missing at K2 between Camp 1 and Camp 2 on July 19 in two separate incidents.

Mr Cartier, 61, went missing during his descent from Camp 3 to Base Camp on July 19. He was a professional mountaineer and he went to Camp 3 for acclimatisation.

The ground search operation was conducted to trace the missing climber, but he was not found.

On Tuesday with help of drone cameras the body of the missing Canadian climber was found near Camp 1. The Canadian climber fell from a cliff and his body was found at a rock.

Australian climber Eakin also went missing during his descent from Camp 3 to Base Camp in a separate incident on July 22.

The sources at Base Camp confirmed that the Australian climber’s body was spotted near Advance Base Camp on Tuesday.

They said the Australian climber fell on rocks.

The bodies of both the climbers were intact and frozen.

Both the climbers were considered experienced mountaineers.

An Australian climber, Rob Norman, in a social media message expressed sorrow over the demise of Mr Eakin. He paid tribute to him and offered condolences to his family.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2022